Cross-cutting Technologies for Advanced Biofuels - Energy.govEnergy Efficiency & Renewable Energy . eere.energy.gov . 1 . ... Current activities provide the analytical basis for Biomass

Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy eere.energy.gov

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Program Name or Ancillary Text eere.energy.gov

Cross-cutting Technologies for Advanced Biofuels

Report-Out Webinar

February 9, 2012

Adam Bratis, Ph.D.

NREL


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Cross-cutting Technology Areas:

Feedstock Supply and Logistics growth, harvesting, delivery

Analysis economic, life-cycle, resource assessment

Catalysis design, characterization, testing

Separations contaminant removal, product recovery

Dr. Adam Bratis Biomass Program Manager National Renewable Energy Laboratory Golden, CO


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Current activities include R&D led by the Sun Grant Initiative, a network of land-grant universities, in partnership with industry, DOE National Laboratories, and USDA, to establish biomass feedstock productivity baselines. The 2010 regional bioenergy crop trials were located across the nation.

Cross-cutting: Feedstock Production

http://www.sungrant.org/

http://www.sungrant.org/


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Existing Supply

Systems

Depot Supply

Systems

Nearer-term Platform Focus (through 2012)

Longer-term Platform Focus (2013+)

Access to a niche or limited feedstock resource

Access to a broader resource

Based on a dry supply system design (field-dried feedstocks)

Allows higher-moisture feedstocks into supply system

Designed for a specific feedstock type (dry corn stover)

Design addresses multiple feedstock types

Current activities deal with major RD&D challenges associated with developing logistics systems for woody and herbaceous feedstock materials that are capable of supplying biorefineries with lower cost, high density, aerobically stable, and high-quality biomass material.

Cross-cutting: Feedstock Logistics


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Cross-cutting: Feedstock Challenges and Activities Ongoing Work: Billion Ton Study Update

Sun Grant Initiative

Uniform Format Feedstock Approach

Barriers: Low Energy Density

Current model is small, decentralized plants Difficulty maximizing economies of scale

Compositional Reliability/Variability

Inter-crop, inter-variety, seasonal, Geographical, storage effects, etc. Moisture, ash, sugar content, etc.

High Relative Cost

Largest cost contributor to biofuels production

Impact of Harvesting/Storage on Downstream Conversion

Densification and product uniformity strategies

Critical R&D Activities: Explore densification strategies to lower

feedstock cost

Define specifications at

Feedstock/Conversion Interface

Develop genetically modified feedstocks

with higher sugar composition and lower

recalcitrance

Develop harvesting, collection and storage

methods that minimize contamination and

sugar degradation

Determine impact of harvesting/logistics

strategies on downstream conversion

Understand and optimize the sustainability

aspects of feedstock harvesting, logistics

and storage operations


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Current activities provide the analytical basis for Biomass Program planning, identify areas of high impact research, and progress assessments, define and validate performance targets for biomass technologies and systems, review and evaluate external analysis and studies, and contribute engineering analyses.

State-of-technology techno-

economic assessments

Well-to-wheels analysis and expansion of GHG

Emissions and Energy Use in Transportation

(GREET) model for emerging biofuels

production pathways

Land-use change model development

GIS-based assessment of optimal

feedstock resource potential

Cross-cutting: Analysis


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2007 2008 2009 2010

2011

Targets

2012

Targets

Minimum Ethanol Selling Price ($/gal) $3.64 $3.56 $3.19 $2.77 $2.56 $2.15

Feedstock Contribution ($/gal) $1.12 $1.04 $0.95 $0.82 $0.76 $0.74

Conversion Contribution ($/gal) $2.52 $2.52 $2.24 $1.95 $1.80 $1.41

Yield (Gallon/dry ton) 69 70 73 75 78 79

Feedstock

Feedstock Cost ($/dry ton) $77.20 $72.90 $69.65 $61.30 $59.60 $58.50

Pretreatment

Solids Loading (wt%) 30% 30% 30% 30% 30% 30%

Xylan to Xylose (including enzymatic) 75% 75% 84% 85% 88% 90%

Xylan to Degradation Products 13% 11% 6% 8% 5% 5%

Conditioning

Ammonia Loading (mL per L Hydrolyzate) 50 50 38 23 25 25

Hydrolyzate solid-liquid separation yes yes yes Yes Yes no

Xylose Sugar Loss 2% 2% 2% 2% 1% 1%

Glucose Sugar Loss 1% 1% 1% 1% 1% 0%

Enzymes

Enzyme Contribution ($/gal EtOH) $0.39 $0.38 $0.36 $0.36 $0.34 $0.34

Enzymatic Hydrolysis & Fermentation

Total Solids Loading (wt%) 20% 20% 20% 17% 17% 20%

Combined Saccharification & Fermentation Time (d) 7 7 7 5 5 5

Corn Steep Liquor Loading (wt%) 1% 1% 1% 1% 0.60% 0.25%

Overall Cellulose to Ethanol 86% 86% 84% 86% 86% 86%

Xylose to Ethanol 76% 80% 82% 79% 85% 85%

Arabinose to Ethanol 0% 0% 51% 68% 80% 85%

Cross-cutting: Techno-economic Analysis


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Current efforts are developing and integrating the resources, technologies, and systems across the supply chain needed to grow a biofuels industry in a way that protects the environment and enables sustainable future resources

ethanol

diesel

gasoline

jet fuel

biopower

bioproducts

Feedstock

production and

logistics

Evaluate nutrient and carbon cycling

Assess impact on land and resource use

Minimize water consumption, air pollution, and carbon footprint

Utilize co-products and fully integrate systems

Maximize efficiency

Minimize GHG emissions

Avoid negative impacts on human health

Conversion End use

Life-cycle analysis of water consumption and GHG emissions

Land-use change modeling

Cross-cutting

Water quality analysis Environmental, economic, and

social factors

Cross-cutting: Sustainability


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Ongoing Work: • Peer Reviewed techno-economic analyses

• WTW GHG Emission Modeling

• GIS based Resource Assessments

Barriers: • Availability of High Quality, Public Data

• Still “Developing” Process Strategies

- many potential pathways/intermediates to hydrocarbon fuels/products - some ill-defined unit operations relative to cellulosic ethanol - New separation/product recovery strategies and lignin utilization strategies needed

• Lack of Consistent Analytical Approach

- assumptions drive recommendations

Critical R&D Activities:

• High level Hydrocarbon Fuel Scoping Study

- compare a variety of bio-oil and sugar

intermediate routes to HC fuels; identify

baselines and/or gaps in experimental

information, guide R&D opportunities

• Refinery Integration and Co-location Study

- evaluate economic impact of refinery

integration, perform comprehensive TEA to

guide selection of feasible intermediates,

examine trade-offs between economy of scale

advantages in refinery and transportation

• Lignin Utilization Study

- evaluate fuel and value added product options

that could be generated from lignin or lignin

monomers/oligomers

Cross-cutting: Analysis and Sustainability


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Chemical Catalysis

Fundamental Science Applied R&D Integration and Demonstration

Computation is helping to shape our understanding of metal-metal and metal-support interactions in catalytic materials.

The design of new catalytic materials with precise active sites for selective deoxygenation.

Validating and piloting Developing robust

catalysts for biomass-

derived process streams

Tools available are accelerating catalyst discovery and testing.

Surface science tools are providing details on changes to catalysts over time.

Catalysts are validated through thousands of hours of operation in continuous reactors. Integrated process can be demonstrated.

5 µm

6 µm

Cross-cutting: Catalysis


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Biotechnology and Biocatalysis

Research provides insight into the cell wall. The insight is used to develop new plant species, improved enzymes for deconstruction, and advanced organisms for converting sugars/carbohydrates into organic acids, alcohols, and hydrocarbons.



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Ongoing Work: Catalyst Design, Characterization and Testing

Enzyme/Organism Characterization and Development

Biomass/Catalyst Surface Characterization

Barriers: Poor Selectivity Towards Desired Reactions

Decreases process/carbon efficiency

Increases coke formation/volatiles formation/catalyst deactivation

Low sugar utilization in fermentation

Poor Understanding of Rxn Fundamentals

Kinetics, mechanisms, competing reactions, surface interactions in complex mixtures

Limited Catalyst Lifetime Data

Catalyst deactivation and organism/enzyme inhibition an issue Catalyst stability and regenerability

Critical R&D Activities: Enhance selectivity towards desired reactions Better understanding of catalyst-biomass

surface interactions through modeling, spectroscopy, and empirical relationships

Investigate novel processes and catalysts

H2 addition during pyrolysis, hydrogen

Donor/shuttle molecules, consolidated

Bioprocessing, thermo-tolerant enzymes,

Genetically improved organisms

Improve catalyst lifetimes

Develop more robust catalysts and inhibitor tolerant organisms

Improve aqueous phase catalysts (stability and selectivity) in presence of hydrolyzates

Industrially Relevant Long Term Testing



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Ongoing Work: Inhibitor Mitigation/Removal from Slurries

De-acetylation

Gas/Liquid Filtration of Pyrolysis Vapors/Oils

Barriers: Product Recovery for HCs Different than EtOH

Potentially less energy intensive but more complex than fractional distillation

Poor Understanding of Purification Needs

Emerging organisms/catalysts will have own set of tolerances to inhibitors/contaminants

Extensive concentration of intermediates?

Solid/liq. separation in intermediates/products

Economic Routes to Reagent Recycling and

Product Recovery

Membrane/Filter Durability for Biofuels

Critical R&D Activities: Explore Feasibility of Current Technology to

Biomass Applications

Identification and Mitigation of Key

Inhibitors/Contaminants

Development of Novel Separation

Techniques/Materials

Integrate Separations and Conversion

Product removal during fermentation

Catalysis during filtration

Reactive distillation

Explore Reagent Recycling Strategies

Industrially Relevant Long Term Testing

Cross-cutting: Separations

Documents

Cross-cutting Technologies for Advanced Biofuels - Energy.govEnergy Efficiency & Renewable Energy . eere.energy.gov . 1 . ... Current activities provide the analytical basis for Biomass